The subject is classified among the sensitive files of the Elysee: “We are handling nitroglycerin there.
Attention danger, it will cleave to death ", slips a close friend of Emmanuel Macron ... who does not think so well put.
Examined at the end of the morning this Thursday in the hemicycle, the bill providing for extending the period of access to abortion from two weeks, reducing it from 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy, may indeed cause some turmoil in the majority.
Unless there is a last minute rebound, the deputies of the Republic on the march should vote in favor of the text initially tabled by the Ecology, Democracy and Solidarity group ... but against the advice of Matignon and the Elysee.
One more hitch, after the vote on Tuesday of the bill on the use of neonicotinoids to save the beet industry, adopted with record abstention and opposition from LREM parliamentarians.
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In recent days, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister have nevertheless sent messages, expressing their strong reservations about a text which also proposes to remove the conscience clause specific to abortion for doctors.
“It is not a question of substance, but of method.
And on a social issue as highly flammable as the voluntary termination of pregnancy, the method is as important as the substance ", warns Matignon, not very hot to launch a debate at the turn of a bill" tabled in haste and examined in one hour within the framework of a parliamentary niche of an opposition group, “supports a minister also very reserved.
"On such a serious subject, it deserves better than a torn discussion and in an anteroom", engages an adviser, who specifies "not to be in a moral or ethical judgment", but asks for a debate "clear and framed ".
Christophe Castaner and Aurore Bergé for
In private, Jean Castex recently recalled that "the society of scientists had recently issued an unfavorable opinion on the subject, and unanimously".
Last week, he also spoke with MPs to explain that there were "arguments for, and arguments against".
Since then, he has approached the National Council of Ethics which should deliver its opinion in early November.
As for Emmanuel Macron, "it is not very hot to reopen this kind of debate now, it is not an emergency," says a minister who recently spoke with him.
“Extending the two-week period to be able to perform an abortion is good on paper, but in fact, the country suffers from a glaring lack of gynecologists in the territory, some of whom do not perform abortion.
The problem is therefore much larger, ”insists a heavyweight in the executive.
Except that in the Assembly, the deputies do not understand it that way.
Already last week, the boss of the group Christophe Castaner, yet close to Macron, indicated that he would vote for.
"We cannot define ourselves as a progressive party, having focused on the subject of gender equality for three years and not voting a text like this one", deplores Aurore Bergé, who will also vote for this bill. filed by a dissident group En Marche, “on principle”.
"It is not a sling, it is a vote of conviction on a visceral subject for us", engages the elected representative of Yvelines, who recalls that "each year, between 3000 and 5000 women are obliged to practice an abortion at abroad, because they are out of time ”.
Same speech from the deputy Roland Lescure, who will vote "personally in favor of this text", even if he says "regret" the method.
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Anyway, even if it is adopted at first reading this Thursday, the path will remain strewn with pitfalls.
"With the right-wing majority in the Senate, there is a good chance that it will be challenged, admits an elected official.
The challenge is that he then returns to the Assembly to bring the debate to life.
Perhaps the standoff has only just begun.